


Leading to Goodbye

by simply_aly



Category: Vampire Diaries (TV)
Genre: F/M, Teacher-Student Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-30
Updated: 2012-12-30
Packaged: 2017-11-23 21:08:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 574
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/626535
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/simply_aly/pseuds/simply_aly
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Neither could describe what it was, exactly, that they were feeling when they locked eyes, but they both knew it was dangerous.</p>
<p>(AU sometime in Season 2.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Leading to Goodbye

There was a moment once upon a time when their eyes met for the first time in a school full of students. Elena could sense there was something she liked about the new history teacher, and Alaric just knew there was something about Elena Gilbert that just called to him. Neither could describe what it was, exactly, that they were feeling when they locked eyes, but they both knew it was dangerous. Too dangerous, in fact, to even be acknowledged.  
  
She was a student and he was a teacher and nothing more could possibly exist—or, at least, that was the plan. Then Alaric somehow got involved with Elena’s aunt and it was (subconsciously, he decided later) his way of staying close to her until he could figure out what it was about her that was so captivating.  
  
Not long after, Elena went on a search for her birth mother and came to the conclusion that his long-dead (yet not dead) wife had given birth to her and the mystery of his attraction to his brunette student with the innocent doe eyes was cleared up in those simple words. And, were he at all as honorable as he thought himself, he’d of backed away from the Gilbert family…but he didn’t—a mistake he would realize later.  
  
-x-  
  
There were moments when both Alaric and Elena seemed to anticipate the needs of the other in such a way that made no sense to either of them. For all intents and purposes, they were connected solely through Isobel—a person neither really knew in the first place—and therefore shouldn’t know each other as well as they do.  
  
Yet it’s Elena who is always able to smooth out Alaric’s problems with Jenna, and it’s Alaric who is able to help the Salvatores protect Elena.  
  
And, were he as smart as he thought himself, Alaric would have recognized what was happening and put a stop to it before the inevitable conclusion.  
  
-x-  
  
There was once a kiss. It was simply a kiss on the cheek (of gratitude and thanks), but it was enough to reignite that old spark in Alaric that had come to be that first morning in the classroom.  
  
Klaus was dead—largely in part to Alaric’s combined research and planning—and Elena was simply being herself when she went on her tiptoes to kiss his cheek after a wordless ‘thank you’ passed between them.  
  
And, were he as wise as he thought himself to be, he would not have pulled her into a quiet hug—so glad that she had survived.  
  
-x-  
  
The moment of clarity came too late, as it often does; and Alaric had packed his meager belongings and was out of Mystic Falls before nightfall the day she had told him she loved him.  
  
It wasn’t truly the ‘I am in love with you and wish to spend my life with you’ kind of love, but Alaric could see the implications of what it could turn in to were he to allow it to stand. So he had held her close and kissed her forehead and let himself whisper the words back to her. He was being honest, after all, and he knew he was going to leave and felt she deserved that knowledge at the very least.  
  
And were he as selfish as he wanted to be in that moment, he would have vowed to come back one day.


End file.
